Archives for July 2009

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‘"Seeing her every day puts a fire in your belly to go out there and play for her," Marcus said. "It’s incredible to see what she does. She gets ticked off because she misses family events due to her sickness. She’s such a battler, such a fighter and wants to be with us every day. And we have to settle her down. She wants to do things 100 miles per hour."’

‘If camp was any indication, Gerbe is ready to make a run at a roster spot. He consistently stood out among his peers, and offensive contributions came as often as they did in Portland last year. Don’t be surprised if he’s this year’s breakout Sabre.’

‘”I’m OK going in,” said Ruff, whose team finished two points out of a playoff spot. “We were pretty close to being where we wanted to be, and a couple disappointing things happened, and we ended up not getting there. The fact that we were able to put on a strong finish [7-2-1 in the final 10 games] was something that I really felt was important for our team.”‘

‘“It’s like anything, you just get a level of confidence. I come to a camp like this and I enjoy spending the time with Brian McCutcheon and Lindy Ruff and James Patrick, it’s like a week of Hockey 101,” Dineen said. “We come in and we’re talking about systems, we’re talking about players. The learning curve is really long and I’ve only been doing this four years."’

‘The Sabres gave up on four former prospects and Pirates: goaltender Adam Dennis, forward Dylan Hunter and defensemen Mike Card and Michael Funk, who signed with Vancouver. Free-agent signees who won’t return to Portland include Mathieu Darche, who signed with Montreal, and Tyler Bouck and Colin Murphy, who both agreed to play in Europe.’

‘“My main goal is to play for Buffalo. Anything less and I’m going to be disappointed in myself,” Gerbe said after Thursday’s session. “If I have to go down to Portland, I’ll be disappointed but I’ll work as hard as I can to get back up. I know this is where I want to be.”’

‘Ellis joined the Sabres just before last season after being claimed off waivers from the Los Angeles Kings. In 45 games for Buffalo, he scored a career-high seven goals and registered a career-high 12 points.’